[Corporations] FPIF News | Reclaiming the City on the Hill

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New at FPIF

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Introducing the latest policy analysis from Foreign Policy In Focus

Reclaiming the City on the Hill
By Col. Daniel Smith, U.S. Army (Ret.)


The nation's—and the world's—final farewells to Coretta Scott King were
celebrated in Atlanta on February 7. Three former presidents attended
Mrs. King's funeral, as did President Bush. 

The day before, he had submitted to Congress a $2.77 trillion budget
request for fiscal year 2007, a request whose entire tenor runs counter
to the life and work of Mrs. King and her husband, Dr. Martin Luther
King, Jr. 

The budget request gives the Defense Department (DoD) a 4.8
percent—$28.5 billion—increase over the amount appropriated for the
current fiscal year, excluding supplemental appropriations for the wars
in Iraq and Afghanistan. This increase for DoD actually exceeds by $1.1
billion the total difference ($27.4 billion) between discretionary
spending (what Congress enacts every year) for fiscal 2006 ($843.3
billion) and what the president requested for 2007 ($870.7 billion). 

Among the other 23 agency discretionary accounts, only International
Relations and Veterans Affairs saw increases exceeding one billion
dollars. Eight agencies edged up between $100,000 and $600,000, with
the other 13 losing $10.8 billion. The biggest loser is Education
(-$3.5 billion). The budget terminated vocational education and
drug-free school grants to states, arts in education, gifted and
talented education, and teacher quality enhancement programs. Community
Service Grants under Health and Human Services are terminated as part
of the $866 million cut in discretionary spending—with another $3.2
billion cut from mandatory spending (chiefly Medicare) for 2007. 

What does it say about a nation that allows its government to
spend—before counting war fighting costs—$480.9 billion attempting to
secure the homeland (DoD plus $41.6 billion for all non-DoD federal
spending) while it undermines community building and community
assistance efforts that (1) are essential to millions of today's most
vulnerable and (2) expand tomorrow's opportunities by broadening the
scope of training for today's youth? 

It clearly says that the United States no longer cherishes the
spiritual vision articulated by one of the earliest colonial “Founding
Fathers”—the Puritan leader, John Winthrop—while still aboard the
Arbella in 1630. In a discourse titled “A Model of Christian Charity,”
Winthrop wrote one of the enduring images associated with the early
Puritan settlers: “For we must consider that we shall be as a city upon
a hill. The eyes of all people are upon us.” As his title suggests,
Winthrop's message to his fellow seekers is one of inclusiveness.
Noting that their religious quest for freedom of conscience had a
parallel secular quest for moral self-governance, he cautions the
company that “the care of the public must oversway all private respects

” 


Dan Smith is a military affairs analyst for Foreign Policy In Focus
(online at www.fpif.org), a retired U.S. Army colonel, and a senior
fellow on military affairs at the Friends Committee on National
Legislation.

See new IRC commentary online at: 
http://fpif.org/fpiftxt/3120

With printer-friendly pdf version at: 
http://fpif.org/pdf/gac/0602city.pdf

For media inquiries Emily Schwartz Greco, emily at ips-dc.org,
202-297-5412 
  Siri Khalsa, media at irc-online.org, 505-388-0208 
 
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